BanglaCricket Article

As the year 2007 wends its way, the authors call for the Tiger's and their fans take a new Oath. One that is forward looking but still based on realistic expectations.

Oath 2007

by A. Bashir and Imran Kabir

Published: 16th March, 2007

At this moment, Bangladesh is neither at the level of associates, nor placed
at a very top strata of the game. They are still less experienced than the top
ranked teams, and face difficulties when it comes to experience. However, they
are well equipped with a regular supply of young-prospects, an ever improving
infrastructure and a huge interest for the game among the fans.

In the last year or so, we have seen many victories for Bangladesh. It has
become more of a habit to come home victorious for the Tigers. And the fans
too have adapted to this with higher expectations than ever before. But is defeating
the opponent the only way to prove our worth? Do all the top ranked teams win
every match they play?

What happens when they play among themselves? There is only one winner. Does
that mean the other one is a much lesser team?

Take a look at table below. Even a team like India has only won 48.6% of the
matches that they have played since World Cup 2003. The West Indies has had
a painful experience with only 41.6% win, while a team like New Zealand that
has beaten Australia three times in a row recently has had only a 46.3% winning
record since after the 2003 World Cup. These teams have lost a majority of their
matches and yet they are still the dominant teams in world cricket.

Country

Played

Won

Lost

Win%

Loss%

Australia

115

81

28

70.4

24.3

Bangladesh

82

30

52

36.6

63.4

England

87

39

41

44.8

47.1

India

109

53

50

48.6

45.9

New Zealand

95

44

39

46.3

41.1

Pakistan

105

59

43

56.2

41.0

Sri Lanka

98

55

39

56.1

39.8

West Indies

95

41

48

41.6

50.5

Zimbabwe

88

18

67

20.5

76.1

Table: Teams with total matches played, total wins and total losses
since World Cup 2003

It is time for the team and the fans to start taking a defeat as just a defeat.
Yes, that is what has to be. No matter how bad the defeat is, it has to be counted
as just another loss. We fans should not forget that the top Test nations too
often suffer bad defeats when they play each other. There is hardly any hue
and cry about the team when that happens. This is simply because what happens
in the field completely depends on the particular day that the match takes place
and how the teams perform as a whole. As one of our own distinguished BanglaCricket
forum member has put it, the attitude should be like: "You were better than
me today, but tomorrow I will get you".

Image: Bangladesh team celebrating victory.

In the next one or two years, Bangladesh might only win 2-3 matches out of 10
played against stronger Test teams (and I honestly believe they will). But those
other 7-8 losses will not indicate failures of the team. This win-loss ratio will
improve every year for Bangladesh. â€œI donâ€™t count respectable defeat as a success,
I only want winsâ€ â€“ is probably a level of expectation which can only suffocate
and frustrate a fan.

Moreover, as they always say, it takes a lot of hard work to score 80 out of
100 in an exam, but it takes a lote more work to score the last 20. Fans need
to be patient and reset their expectations to be more realistic. Let this be
the Oath for the team and for the fans for the year 2007 and beyond.

About the author(s):

In between moderating the BanglaCricket forums, our own A Bashir pens cricket articles that offer deep insights and make you go hmmm....

Imran Kabir is a Masters candidate at the University of Toronto, specializing in Information Systems. His passion for Bangladesh Cricket has brought him to BanglaCricket, where he soon found the perfect world of cricket lovers. He goes by the nick "Kabir" in our forums, and is a BanglaCricket Editor.